Black walnut tree named ‘Beineke 1’

ABSTRACT

A new and distinct cultivar of black walnut tree ( Juglans nigra  L.) which is a distinctly characterized by extremely rapid growth rate, very strong central stem tendency, and excellent straightness, thereby producing excellent timber qualities. The new variety has poor nut bearing qualities. Nut crops have been non-existent. This new variety of black walnut tree was discovered by the applicant near West Lafayette, Ind. in a black walnut planting of seedling progeny from a previously selected tree for outstanding timber producing potential. This selection has been designated as BW412, a seedling progeny of patented Tippecanoe-1 (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,954) in records maintained by the applicant on the performance of the selection and grafts made from the selection and will be known henceforth as ‘Beineke 1.’

Latin name of the genus and species: Juglans nigra L.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This new variety of black walnut tree was discovered by the applicantnear West Lafayette, Ind. in a black walnut planting of seedling progenyfrom previously selected trees for outstanding timber producingpotential. This selection has been designated as BW412, a seedlingprogeny of patented Tippecanoe-1 (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,954) in recordsmaintained by the applicant on the performance of the selection andgrafts made from the selection and will be known henceforth as ‘Beineke1.’ The male parent is unknown, as is generally the case with blackwalnut trees. (Beineke, 1989).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A new and distinct cultivar of black walnut tree (Juglans nigra L.) isdistinctly characterized by extremely rapid growth rate, very strongcentral stem tendency, and excellent straightness, thereby producingexcellent timber qualities, the trait of commercial interest. Beineke 1was 18 years old when described at a location near West Lafayette, Ind.

After the original clone was selected, and assigned an identity numberof BW412 the aforesaid tree was reproduced by collecting scions from itand grafting these onto common black walnut rootstocks at AmericanForestry Technologies, Inc., West Point, Ind. These asexualreproductions ran true to the originally discovered tree and to eachother in all respects.

Color value used were from the Munsell Color Chart for Plant Tissues.However, color is too dependent on weather conditions and fertilizationto be consistent or distinctive. For example, leaves can be made adeeper green by applying nitrogen. Walnut tree leaves turn yellow as theseason progresses, especially if there is a lack of rainfall. As blackwalnut meats dry, they become darker. Simply being on the ground for aweek causes the outer shell to darken. Bark color involves many shadesof gray through brown and black.

Beineke 1 is hardy in USDA zones 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a photograph showing the timber form of ‘Beineke 1.’

FIG. 2 is a photograph showing the leaves of ‘Beineke 1.’

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANT

The botanical details of this new and distinct variety of walnut treeare as follows:

Tree:

Size.—Large, 48 ft. at 18 years, crown diameter 18 ft.

Vigor.—Vigorous.

Growth rate.—Very rapid, faster than Purdue 1 (U.S. Plant Pat. No.4,543) and Tippecanoe 1 (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,954) — 7% larger indiameter than the average of Purdue 1 and Tippecanoe 1 graftsrespectively, planted the same year on the same land. Diameter growthrate (at 4½ feet above the ground) averages 0.582 inches per year, over18 years 10.48 inches.

Form.—Excellent timber form as good as Purdue 1 (U.S. Plant Pat. No.4,543) and Tippecanoe 1 (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,954) — 36% straighterthan average of the entire planting. Stem form was obtained bysubjectively rating the straightness of the main stem on a scale of 1 to5 with 1 representing a perfectly straight stem; 2, slight crook ordeviation of the central stem (no crooks); 3, about averagestraightness; 4, several severe crooks or a single fork; and 5, a verycrooked, forked and/or leaning central stem. ‘Beineke 1’ averages 1. Thetrees of the present invention are grown in plantations, not open fields(not natural stands). In plantations, trees are upright and have nodistinctive or characteristic crown shape because all branches areseeking to grow upwards.

Branches: Diameter depends on age and size of tree, varies from ½″ to12″, bark color varies from grays to browns.

Trunk:

Bark.—Dark brown to gray.

Texture.—Interlacing ridges.

Leaves:

Compound leaves.—Size — Shorter than average; average length 15.1″.

Leaflets.—Size — average; average length 3.9″; average width — 3.52″;average number of leaflets — 17.4; shape — lanceolate; acutely pointed,rounded base. Petioles — short. Thickness — thin; Texture — smooth;Margin — serrated. Color — Topside — dark green (2.5 G4/4 by the MunsellColor Chart for Plant Tissues); Underside — light green (5GY5/4 on theMunsell Color Chart for Plant Tissues).

Anthracnose resistance.—Average.

Flowering habit: No flowering habit.

Nut—Nuts not produced.

GENETIC METHOD OF IDENTIFICATION

DNA “fingerprint” for identification of ‘Beineke 1:’

DNA was isolated from the leaves of ‘Beineke 1.’ For purposes of DNAfingerprinting, nine highly polymorphic loci from a suite ofmicrosatellites developed by Woeste et al. (2002) were chosen.Microsatellites sizes were checked against previously publishedstandards and verified by a second independent analysis. The“fingerprint” is the collection of microsatellite allele sizes at eachlocus for ‘Beineke 1.’

DNA was isolated from the leaves of 10 black walnut trees obtained fromWalter Beineke using CTAB extraction buffer (50 mM TRIS-HCL, pH 8.0, 20mM EDTA, pH 8.0, 0.7 M NaCl, 0.4 M LiCl, 2% SDS, 2% TAB, nd 1% PVP).After isolation the DNA from each tree was quantified and diluted withnanopure distilled water to a final concentration of 5 ng/μL. Thesamples were stored in 96-well plates at 20° C.

For purposes of DNA fingerprinting, nine highly polymorphic loci from asuite of microsatellites developed by Woeste et al. (2002) were chosen.Amplification of each locus was performed with an MJ Research TetradThermocycler (Waltham, Mass.) using 10 μL reaction in 96-well plates.The PCR reaction mix contained 2 μL of the aforementioned black walnutDNA, 5 μL Sigma Taq ReadyMix (Sigma Aldrich, St. Louis, Mo.), 0.4 μL ofa 20 pmol mixture of forward and reverse fluorescence labeled primer,and 3 μL PCR grade water supplied with the Sigma ReadyMix. PCRamplification was for 30 cycles of 94° C. for 20 sec, 55° C. for 30 sec,and 72° C. for 1 min. All primers were annealed at 55° C. The productswere then held at 4° C. until aliquots could be loaded into 6% LongRanger (polyacrylamide) denaturing gels (BMA, Rockland, Me.). For eachindividual 0.5 μL PCR product was added to 0.75 μL blue dextran and 0.25μL of CXR 350 bp Ladder Standard (Promega, Fitchburg Center, Wis.) in anew 96-well 1 late. The samples were denatured for 2 min at 95° C. andloaded onto a CAL96 96-well laminated membrane comb (The Gel Company,San Francisco, Calif.). Electrophoresis was at 3,000 V, 60 mA, 200Watts, 50° C. for 2 hours using an ABI 377 (Perkin Elmer) with 36 cmplates and 0.2 mm spacers. The resulting data was analyzed using ABI'sGeneScan 3.1.2 and Genotype 2.5 (Perkin Elmer). Microsatellite sizeswere checked against previously published standards and verified by asecond independent analysis. The “fingerprint” is the collection ofmicrosatellite allele sizes at each locus for each tree.

Locus Forward Reverse WGA2 GACGACGAAGGTGTACGGAT GTACGGCTCTCCTTGCAGTC(SEQ ID NO:1) (SEQ ID NO:10) WGA6 CCATGAAACTTCATGCGTTGCATCCCAAGCGAAGGTTG (SEQ ID NO:2) (SEQ ID NO:11) WGA24TCCCCCTGAAATCTTCTCCT TTCTCGTGGTGCTTGTTGAG (SEQ ID NO:3) (SEQ ID NO:12)WGA32 CTCGGTAAGCCACACCAATT ACGGGCAGTGTATGCATGTA (SEQ ID NO:4) (SEQ IDNO:13) WG33 TGGTCTGCGAAGACACTGTC GGTTCGTCGTTTGTTGACCT (SEQ ID NO:5) (SEQID NO:14) WGA86 ATGCCTCATCTCCATTCTGG TGAGTGGCAATCACAAGGAA (SEQ ID NO:6)(SEQ ID NO:15) WGA89 ACCCATCTTTCACGTGTGTG TGCCTAATTAGCAATTTCCA (SEQ IDNO:7) (SEQ ID NO:16) WGA90 CTTGTAATCGCCCTCTGCTC TACCTGCAACCCGTTACACA(SEQ ID NO:8) (SEQ ID NO:17) WGA97 GGAGAGGAAAGGAATCCAAATTGAACAAAAGGCCGTTTTC (SEQ ID NO:9) (SEQ ID NO:18)

The best interpretation of the current data indicates that theprobability that any other black walnut tree would have the collectionof microsatellite allele sizes listed is less that 1 in 10⁻¹⁷.

Sizes (bp) of microsatellites at 9 loci used to fingerprint ‘Beineke 1’(2 alleles at each locus)

WGA2 WGA6 WGA24 WGA32 WGA90 150 150 142 164 236 238 181 183 152 158WGA86 WGA97 WGA33 WGA89 222 230 153 183 234 234 215 215

DOCUMENTS CITED

Beineke, Walter F. (1989) Twenty years of black walnut geneticimprovement at Purdue University North. J. Appl. For. 6:68-71.

Woeste, K., Burns, R., Rhodes, O., and Michler, C. (2002) (In Press)Thirty polymorphic nuclear microsatellite loci from black walnut.Journal of Heredity.

18 1 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description of Artificial SequencePrimer 1 gacgacgaag gtgtacggat 20 2 20 DNA Artificial SequenceDescription of Artificial Sequence Primer 2 ccatgaaact tcatgcgttg 20 320 DNA Artificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 3tccccctgaa atcttctcct 20 4 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 4 ctcggtaagc cacaccaatt 20 5 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 5tggtctgcga agacactgtc 20 6 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 6 atgcctcatc tccattctgg 20 7 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 7acccatcttt cacgtgtgtg 20 8 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 8 cttgtaatcg ccctctgctc 20 9 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 9ggagaggaaa ggaatccaaa 20 10 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 10 gtacggctct ccttgcagtc 20 11 18 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 11catcccaagc gaaggttg 18 12 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 12 ttctcgtggt gcttgttgag 20 13 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 13acgggcagtg tatgcatgta 20 14 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 14 ggttcgtcgt ttgttgacct 20 15 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 15tgagtggcaa tcacaaggaa 20 16 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 16 tgcctaatta gcaatttcca 20 17 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 17tacctgcaac ccgttacaca 20 18 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 18 ttgaacaaaa ggccgttttc 20

I claim:
 1. A new and distinct variety of black walnut tree named‘Beineke 1’ substantially as illustrated and described, which hasexcellent timber quality, is fast growing, has strong central stemtendency, no sweep, no crooks, and no nut production.